A gift transfer — known under Dubai practice as a Hiba transfer — is the registered transfer of property ownership between first-degree relatives, or between an individual and a company they wholly own, at a concessional DLD fee of 0.125% of value (minimum AED 2,000) against the standard 4% transfer fee on commercial sales. Eligibility is restricted, documentation is exacting, and the route is the principal mechanism for intra-family estate consolidation in Dubai.
giftingproperty.ae is the dedicated Dubai reference on Hiba transfers, maintained by Cendale Documents Clearing Services FZCO. This site covers who qualifies, how the documentation must be assembled, what the trustee office requires, and how a gift transfer interacts with mortgage release, succession planning, and onward transactions.
A Hiba transfer is a registered transfer of legal title from one party (the donor) to another (the donee) without consideration — that is, without the donee paying the donor. It is the formal Dubai mechanism for transferring property within a family, or between an individual and a company they wholly own, at concessional fees.
The transfer is registered at DLD on the same procedural basis as a sale: the donor relinquishes title, the donee receives a new title deed, and DLD updates the property register. The substantive distinction is the absence of consideration and the resulting concessional fee — 0.125% of the assessed property value, minimum AED 2,000, in place of the 4% applied to sales.
The legal framework is established at two levels. Federal Law No. (5) of 1985 (the UAE Civil Transactions Code) defines the gift as a lifetime transfer of property without consideration, requiring donor capacity and voluntary action. At the emirate level, Law No. (14) of 2017 Regulating Endowments and Gifts in the Emirate of Dubai sets the specific Hiba rules — the 0.125% fee structure, the eligibility criteria, and the restrictions on repeated gifting of the same property.
DLD restricts the Hiba route to two categories of recipient.
First-degree relatives. Parent to child, child to parent, and between spouses. Sibling transfers do not qualify; nor do transfers between grandparent and grandchild, aunts/uncles and nieces/nephews, cousins, or stepparents and stepchildren. A transfer outside the eligible relationships is treated as a sale and assessed at 4%.
Self-owned companies. A donor may gift property to a company they wholly own (sole shareholder), or a wholly-owned company may gift property to its sole shareholder. The company must be registered with DLD before the gift application is submitted, and constitutional documents — trade licence, certificate of incorporation, share certificate, memorandum and articles of association — must establish the sole-ownership position.
Where the company is registered outside the UAE, corporate documents must be attested for UAE use. Where the issuing country is a Hague Apostille Convention member state, the apostille issued by the competent authority replaces the consular legalisation chain; the documents still require sworn Arabic translation on receipt. Where issued in a non-member state, the full chain through MOFAIC applies. Operational acceptance should be confirmed before reliance.
Documentary proof of relationship is a hard requirement for individual recipients. Parent-child transfers require birth certificates linking the parties; spousal transfers require the marriage certificate. UAE citizens may submit a marriage contract or Family Book as proof. Where these documents were issued in a Hague Apostille Convention member state, the apostille issued by the competent authority replaces the foreign-ministry, embassy, and MOFAIC chain; the document still requires sworn Arabic translation on receipt in the UAE. Where issued in a non-member state, the full consular legalisation chain remains required. Operational acceptance of apostilled documents at Dubai trustee offices should be confirmed before reliance.
Hiba transfers are used in several recurring contexts. Estate consolidation: a parent transfers a property to a child during lifetime, simplifying eventual inheritance and confirming the child’s ownership outside the succession process. Family allocation: parents allocate properties between adult children during lifetime, recording the intended distribution. Spousal restructuring: a property held in one spouse’s name is transferred jointly or to the other spouse, often to align ownership with funding sources or visa positions. Corporate restructuring: an individual transfers property to a wholly-owned UAE company for asset-protection or estate-planning purposes (or vice versa, where a company holds property in its name and the sole shareholder consolidates personally).
Each context has different documentary and procedural emphasis, but all run through the same core Hiba mechanism: eligibility proof, donor consent, registered transfer, concessional fee.
DLD applies a transfer fee of 0.125% of the DLD-assessed property value on Hiba transfers, with a minimum fee of AED 2,000. The Hiba fee is paid by manager’s cheque on transfer day, on the same basis as a standard sale.
The 0.125% rate is significantly below the 4% applied to sales — for a property valued at AED 3 million, the differential is the difference between AED 3,750 (Hiba) and AED 120,000 (sale), a gap of more than AED 116,000. The concession reflects the policy intent of facilitating intra-family transfers under Law No. (14) of 2017.
Beyond the DLD fee, the Hiba transfer carries the standard ancillary costs: trustee office registration fee, title deed issuance fee (AED 250), map fee (AED 225 for properties under Dubai Municipality, AED 100 for properties outside), admin fees, knowledge and innovation fees, developer NOC fee where applicable, and any mortgage-release costs where the donor’s mortgage is being released as part of the transfer.
DLD also requires a property valuation as the basis for fee calculation. The valuation fee is approximately AED 4,020 for residential apartments and villas; the smart valuation system processes residential units instantly, while land parcels and other property types take five working days.
Not every property qualifies for Hiba registration. Eligible properties must have a clear title deed registered with DLD and be located in a designated freehold area. Granted land and restricted land are not eligible. Off-plan properties are not eligible until title issuance at handover.
Mortgaged properties can be gifted, but the bank’s approval is required and the mortgage position must be addressed at or before transfer (see Mortgage and Hiba Transfers below).
A property linked to an active Golden Visa cannot be gifted while the visa is held against it. The visa would need to be re-anchored to a different property before the gift transfer can proceed.
Critically, the same property cannot be gifted at the 0.125% rate more than once. Under Law No. (14) of 2017, double gifting of a property is restricted — a subsequent gift transfer of a property that has already been transferred by Hiba may not qualify for the reduced rate and may be assessed at the full 4%, depending on DLD’s assessment of the circumstances. This restriction is strictly applied.
Core documentation for a Hiba transfer: original title deed; donor and donee Emirates IDs and passports; relationship proof (birth certificates, marriage certificate, or Family Book for UAE citizens; attested where issued outside the UAE); developer NOC (or eNOC for jointly owned properties); service-charge clearance; DLD valuation certificate; and the Hiba contract recording the transfer.
For corporate parties: trade licence; certificate of incorporation; share certificate; memorandum and articles of association; identification of the authorised signatory by board resolution. Foreign-registered corporate documents must be legalised through MOFAIC and translated into Arabic.
Where the donor or donee cannot attend trustee day, a compliant Power of Attorney is required. Hiba POAs must specifically authorise the gift action and must comply with DLD Circular No. 29/R/2025 — they must be verified through official electronic platforms, and QR code verification alone is not accepted.
Where attested foreign documents are involved, the attestation pathway depends on the issuing country. For Hague Apostille Convention member states, an apostille from the competent authority replaces the consular legalisation chain; sworn Arabic translation by a UAE-sworn translator remains required. For non-member states, the full chain applies: issuing-country foreign ministry attestation, UAE embassy or consulate legalisation in the issuing country, MOFAIC attestation in the UAE, and sworn Arabic translation. Each step is independent; missing any link stops the transfer. Operational acceptance of apostilled documents at Dubai trustee offices should be confirmed before reliance.
A mortgaged property can be transferred by Hiba, but the mortgage position must be addressed at or before the transfer with bank NOC. There are three common scenarios.
First, mortgage release at transfer: the donor settles the mortgage from personal funds (or refinances), the bank issues the clearance letter and original deed, and the property is transferred unencumbered to the donee. This is the cleanest path.
Second, mortgage assumption by the donee: the donee qualifies for a mortgage in their own right and the bank substitutes the loan onto the donee’s name. The property transfers; the mortgage remains, but with the new owner as borrower. Bank approval is required and is not automatic.
Third, donee mortgage post-transfer: the property is transferred unencumbered, then the donee takes a fresh mortgage against it. This separates the gift from the financing and is administratively cleaner where banking timelines do not align with the transfer date.
Each path requires sequencing and explicit bank consent.
The UAE does not impose income tax on individuals, gift tax, capital gains tax on personal property, or inheritance tax. A Hiba transfer therefore has no direct domestic tax consequence beyond the DLD fee. However, donors and donees with tax exposure in other jurisdictions — UK domiciles, US citizens, EU residents — should consider the gift’s treatment under their home-country rules. Inheritance tax, gift tax, and capital gains tax positions in the donor’s or donee’s home jurisdiction may be material and are not addressed by the Dubai transfer.
Cross-jurisdiction considerations are outside the scope of this reference and require qualified tax advice in the relevant jurisdiction.
A Hiba executed during lifetime removes the property from the donor’s estate at the point of transfer. It is a registered, generally irrevocable disposal. A registered Hiba cannot be unilaterally reversed by the donor; revocation is possible only through a court order or by mutual agreement of both parties followed by a new registration process with its own fees.
This makes Hiba a useful tool for clarifying succession before death — properties intended for specific children can be transferred during lifetime, removing them from the eventual estate and avoiding the succession process for those assets.
Hiba is not, however, a substitute for a will. Other assets — bank balances, investments, residual properties — remain part of the estate and require separate planning. UAE residents with significant assets typically pair Hiba transfers with a registered will (DIFC Wills Service Centre or similar) to address both the lifetime distributions and the residual estate.
Hiba is also not an inheritance tax mechanism, because the UAE does not impose inheritance tax. Its use is for clarity, not for tax efficiency in the domestic sense.
Recurring failure points: documentary proof of relationship issued in a non-Arabic jurisdiction without complete attestation chain (where the issuing country is a Hague Apostille Convention member, apostille suffices with sworn Arabic translation; where it is not, full consular legalisation through MOFAIC is required); relationship proof reliant on documents lost or never issued (older marriage certificates, foreign birth records); Hiba POAs that are generic rather than gift-specific, or that fail to comply with DLD Circular No. 29/R/2025; donor or donee identity documents expired at trustee stage; service-charge arrears not cleared at NOC; mortgage-release sequencing errors where the donor’s bank is not aligned with the transfer date; and attempted double-gifting of a property previously transferred by Hiba.
Each is preventable with pre-flight documentation review. The cost of preventing them at the planning stage is small; the cost of resolving them at trustee-day is significant.
Hiba transfer execution at the Dubai Land Department — eligibility verification, documentation assembly, DLD valuation arrangement, mortgage–release sequencing where the donor’s property is mortgaged, and trustee–office attendance — is delivered through conveyance.ae.
Parent-child (in either direction) and spouse-spouse. Siblings, grandparents/grandchildren, in-laws, stepparents/stepchildren, and cousins do not qualify. Note that self-owned companies (where the donor is the sole shareholder) also qualify for the 0.125% rate, though they are a separate eligibility category rather than first-degree relatives.
0.125% of the DLD-assessed property value, with a minimum of AED 2,000, plus admin fees, title deed issuance fee (AED 250), map fee, and trustee office fee. Significantly below the 4% applied to sales.
No. Sibling transfers are not eligible for the Hiba route and would be assessed at the standard 4% transfer fee, even if no money changes hands.
Where a valid marriage is documented. The marriage certificate, if issued in a Hague Apostille Convention member state, can be authenticated through apostille from the competent authority, with sworn Arabic translation on receipt in the UAE. Where issued in a non-member state, the full consular legalisation chain applies: issuing-country foreign ministry attestation, UAE embassy legalisation, MOFAIC attestation in the UAE, and sworn Arabic translation. Operational acceptance at trustee offices should be confirmed before reliance.
Permitted where the donor is the sole shareholder. The company must be registered with DLD before the gift application is submitted, and constitutional documents establishing sole ownership must be presented.
Yes, but the bank’s NOC and approval are required, and the mortgage position must be addressed at or before transfer — released by the donor, assumed by the donee on bank approval, or refinanced post-transfer.
Not unilaterally. A registered Hiba is generally irrevocable. Revocation is possible only through a court order or by mutual agreement of both parties, followed by a new registration process with its own fees.
No. Under Law No. (14) of 2017, double-gifting of the same property is restricted. A subsequent gift transfer of a previously gifted property may not qualify for the reduced rate and may be assessed at the full 4%.
The UAE does not impose inheritance tax. Hiba’s value in succession planning is in clarifying intra-family allocation during lifetime, not in tax avoidance domestically.
Yes, but the POA must specifically authorise the gift action and must comply with DLD Circular No. 29/R/2025, including verification through official electronic platforms. Generic POAs and QR-only verification are rejected at the trustee desk.
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Last reviewed: May 2026